Debt, Benefit and Consumer Advice Services
Soft Market Test Questionnaire
17 October 2012
PSCiP is looking for responses on the questions below from any interested parties. There
are ten questions in total, however, there is no need to answer all ten questions in your
response. The responses will be used by PSCiP as part of an information gathering
exercise to assist in framing the project and service specification ready for procurement.
No information provided in the response to the soft market testing will be used in any
evaluation of any subsequent response to a procurement exercise.
About you and your organisation:
Name:
Organisation:
Organisation Classification:
(e.g. charity, company limited by
guarantee)
Registration number:
Address:
Email Address:
Telephone Number:
Website (if available):
Overview of services currently
provided:
Your views
1. What should a debt, benefit and consumer advice service in a county like
Staffordshire look like (bearing in mind the demographic of the county)? What
services should it include and why? How can we ensure the following outcomes
are met?
o Delivery of an efficient, effective, accessible service providing high quality debt,
benefit and consumer advice across the Staffordshire region, that will:
o Maximise the income of local people throughout Staffordshire through
effective and relevant advice
o Improve the health and wellbeing of local people through effective and
relevant advice
o Maximise the access of individuals, and/or specific sectors of the community,
that most require advice services bearing in mind the need to address
communities in rural locations
o Support and enhance Staffordshire’s debt, benefit and consumer advice
service through service user involvement and building upon the need for an
effective volunteering infrastructure within the region
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Answer 1:
2. What barriers do you believe exist in delivering the outcomes listed above?
Answer 2:
3. How should the service be configured?
Answer 3:
4. How can we ensure the service is set up to enable it to respond to future
changes in demand (for example, arising from changing trends and/or changes
in national policy such as the introduction of Universal Credit)?
Answer 4:
5. How will we know if an effective, high quality service is being provided (for
example, that health is being improved as a result of advice)? How will we know
if the demands and needs of the community are met?
Answer 5:
6. We are looking for informal expressions of interest in these services at this stage
in order to establish the level of market interest. Would your organisation be
interested in ultimately bidding for these services?
Yes / No (Please highlight)
7. Would your organisation be interested in bidding for these services as part of a
consortium bid?
Yes / No (Please highlight)
8. What information would your organisation require to enable them to bid to run
this service?
Answer 8:
9. Would your organisation need additional support to deliver the bid?
Yes / No (Please highlight)
10. If you answered yes, please give more detail about the type of additional support
you would need.
Answer 10:
Please complete and return the attached questionnaire and return by email by 7
December 2012.
Denise Smallman,
Head of PSCiP
denise.smallman@staffordshire.gov.uk
01785 276452
If you have any questions please contact:
Chloe Taylor
Project Manager PSCiP
chloe.taylor@staffordshire.gov.uk
01785 854919.
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